However Homer allow me to repost..., Acts 1:5-7 provides a testimony against the idea that the Kingdom of God was initiated when Jesus went to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven. In Acts 1:5 after Jesus had given a six-week seminar on the subject, of the Kingdom (Acts 1:3) the disciples, who had already been preaching the gospel of the Kingdom under Jesus supervision, asked the obvious question. Hearing that the spirit was to be poured out from heaven, they supposed not unreasonably that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at the same time. They defined the Kingdom has Jesus had taught them. They thought of it as involving the restored tribes of Israel in the land. "Is it yet at this time," they asked, "that you are going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Jesus did not in any way rebuked them for their good question. He simply inform them that the time for the coming of the kingdom would not be known. The restoration of the Kingdom to Israel is taken for granted. The time which pass to elapse before the Kingdom comes cannot be known. Note, however, this is central point which settles any question about the Kingdom in relation to the coming of the spirit. The spirit was to come "in a few days time." But that Kingdom was to arrive at a time of unknown. This proves obviously that the coming of the spirit at Pentecost is not the same event as the coming of the Kingdom.Homer wrote:I agree with Suzana, in fact, she said much of what I intended to say. I think some folks have gotten their shorts wrapped around the axle!
When did the preaching of the kingdom begin? And when did people enter into it? Jesus tells us:
Luke 16:16 (New King James Version)
16. “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.
And what happened on the day of Pentecost?
Luke 24:49 (New King James Version)
49. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
8. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Though the disciples of Jesus may not have understood exactly the nature of the Kingdom, they were in it prior to the cross; the were disciples. Jesus was their King. The difference Pentecost made was the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
You would do well to go back and read what Steve wrote.
Blessings, Homer
We will have to search harder. Back to the promises of God in the O.T. starting in Genesis?
Paul